Chery Automobile Co yesterday disputed a lawsuit by US vehicle firm Visionary Vehicles which accused the Chinese automaker of defrauding after the two companies failed in a deal to export Chinese cars to the US.

"We have noticed the news report on the lawsuit but have not yet got any formal information from Malcolm Bricklin, Visionary Vehicles or courts in the United States," said Chery in a statement.

"We have no idea of the purpose of Visionary Vehicles' act but we could say that we always obey the local laws in countries where we have businesses."

On Sunday, Visionary Vehicles, Chery's former partner owned by entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, launched a suit over a failed attempt to export Chery's cars to the US market, according to media reports.

The company claimed that Chery used Visionary Vehicles as a "stalking horse to obtain a better and more lucrative deal with someone else" and seeks damages and losses of projected earnings of over $1.1 billion.

"We brought them people and we brought them money and ideas," Bricklin said in a conference call on Monday. "They gave us nothing."

Visionary Vehicles and Chery started negotiations in 2004 over a joint venture aiming production of cars in China for the US market and planned to sell 150,000 last year.

The cooperation soured in 2006 as Visionary Vehicles claimed that Chery's models did not reach certain quality and safety requirements required in the US market.

But some reports said the deal failed because Visionary Vehicles did not manage to get enough investment to roll out the model, which forced Chery to seek cooperations with Chrysler LLC and Quantum LLC to sell cars in the US market.

As one of China's largest auto exporters, Chery exported 119,800 cars last year, an increase of 132 percent year-on-year. The company said it planed to sell 480,000 autos this year, with oversea sales surpassing 180,000.

(China Daily July 25, 2008)